Personal Life
Bragg married his first wife, Marie-Elisabeth Roche, in 1961, and they had one child, a daughter. Ten years later she killed herself. He did not know that his wife had a history of suicide attempts. "I could have done things which helped and I did things which harmed", he told The Guardian in 1998. "So yes, I feel guilt, I feel remorse."
Bragg's second wife, Catherine Mary Haste, whom he married in 1973, is also a television producer and writer, having, among other things, edited the 2007 memoir of Clarissa Eden, widow of Sir Anthony Eden, and collaborated with Cherie Booth, wife of Tony Blair, on a 2004 book about the wives of British Prime Ministers. They have a son and a daughter.
Bragg has publicly discussed two nervous breakdowns that happened in his life, one in his teens, and another in his 30s.
A friend of Tony Blair, the former Labour Prime Minister, in 1998 Bragg was named in a list of the largest private financial donors to the Labour Party.
He is a supporter of Arsenal F.C. and Carlisle United (London Branch Hon President)
Read more about this topic: Melvyn Bragg
Famous quotes containing the words personal life, personal and/or life:
“The dialectic between change and continuity is a painful but deeply instructive one, in personal life as in the life of a people. To “see the light” too often has meant rejecting the treasures found in darkness.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“The terrible thing is that one cannot be a Communist and not let oneself in for the shameful act of recantation. One cannot be a Communist and preserve an iota of one’s personal integrity.”
—Milovan Djilas (b. 1911)
“I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing. Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art.”
—Hippocrates (c. 460–c. 370 B.C.)